The Bundy 5: Scariest Halloween Havoc Moments

Seeing as Halloween is right around the corner what better way is there to celebrate this holiday than by taking a look back at one of WCW’s original pay-per-views, Halloween Havoc, and some of its shittiest moments. Granted, this list isn’t going to uncover anything you can’t find on the Wrestlecrap website, but given that this is a list post, let us relive these moments in ranking order.

5. Halloween Havoc ’90: The Fake Sting

This finish has been done a few times and this is probably the worst execution of it. It’s as if WCW was in danger of going over their allotted time, everything just felt rushed. First off, the Horsemen could’ve hired a better Sting impersonator, but I guess because of time constraints Windham would have to do. So not only does Sid beat a taller, flabbier Sting, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind. No chorus of boos, but rather a mild “yeah, I’m okay with this” kind of cheering. Then when the real Sting shows, there’s no great reveal. He doesn’t drag Windham out, expose the lie, then gets Nick Patrick to restart the match and win. Instead, he simply shows up despite Nick Patrick waving his hands “no,” as in the match is over, but Sting proceeds to beat up Sid, hit him with the belt, which is cool because apparently this is now a no-DQ match, and then pins him. And the guy who counted the pin is Nick Patrick, the referee who never “officially” restarted the match and had already told Sting that the match was over. Even in terms of wrestling logic, which there isn’t a whole lot of, this was stupid and even worse, anti-climactic.

4. Halloween Havoc ’92: Coal Miner’s Glove

Anything involving Jake the Snake usually has potential. Given that it’s pre-1995 Jake the Snake Roberts and he hasn’t yet hit rock bottom. Heel Jake against WCW’s ultimate babyface Sting was money. In fact, this feud was pretty damn good considering Jake only stuck around long enough to have one pay-per-view match with Sting. As luck would have it, that pay-per-view match would take place at Halloween Havoc, with the infamous Spin the Wheel stipulation. The best part about it was that neither Jake nor Sting actually knew what match the wheel was going to land on. Imagine if they pulled this shit for Raw Roulette? Who knows how many actual Song and Dance face-offs we would’ve had. So yeah, why rig the wheel to land on the match that would suit both of these wrestlers’ strength? Luckily for everyone involved, the wheel landed on a Coal Miner’s Glove match, which we can all thank Dutch Savage for introducing this concept in 1972. Thanks Dutch, ya dick. The match was basically a (take your pick) on a pole match. Regardless of the horrible stipulation, the ending that was planned was even worse, which goes to show that even when you plan things out ahead of time you can still manage to screw things up. So Sting reaches for the glove, just as Jake pulls out the snake. Sting punches Jake in the back, and Jake reacts by shoving the snake into his face. According to Jim Ross, it attacked him. The best part is when after getting pinned, Jake pulls the snake away from his face to see if it’s alive then sticks it back to his cheek.

3. Halloween Havoc ’91: Chamber of Horrors Match

Never mind that there were about a dozen orderlies patiently waiting down the ramp with their faces painted white, totally undercutting the seriousness of this match. Or the fact that a symbol of the U.S. death penalty was used as a gimmick. This was WCW Vince Russo Era bad. Not only was Cactus Jack waiting by the switch so long that Rick Steiner was able jump out of the chair and get big ass Abdullah the Butcher onto it via belly to belly suplex, and also had time to strap him in, but Cactus Jack never bothered looking back once in those 10 minutes to make sure Rick Steiner was still in the chair. By pro wrestling standards even this was hard to suspend disbelief for. Granted, the special effects looked pretty cool. Like something out of an FMW no rope barbed wire exploding ring time bomb match involving Atsushi Onita.

2. Halloween Havoc ’98: Hulk Hogan vs. The Ultimate Warrior Part II

Hulk Hogan, being the egomaniac that he is, and Ultimate Warrior, being up for a paycheck, were the driving factors that gave us the rematch that nobody outside of 1990 had been waiting for. And this time Pat Patterson wasn’t around to help put the match together. After failing miserably to recreate the magic from Wrestlemania VI, Hogan went into Eddie Gilbert’s bag of tricks and produced what should’ve been a fireball aimed at Warrior’s face, but instead almost burned off what little hair Hogan had left. Whether or not that was supposed to be the finish to the match, who knows, because the 4-5 minutes that followed were just as bad that you can’t help but hope that it was improvised on the spot. Seriously, what other explanation could there have been to justify giving Horace Hogan more screen time than usual?

The simple unexplained fact that The Giant can survive a fall from atop the Cobo Hall, should’ve been enough for him to destroy Hogan without the help of Jimmy Hart, Lex Luger, or The Yetay. Then again, had this never taken place we wouldn’t have ever gotten the best big-man move: the double bear hug. A move that looked to be as logically painful as John Cena’s STF, and instead belonged in some kind of fetish porn. This deserves the number one spot, not just because of the clause Jimmy Hart inserted into the contract that resulted in a horrendous DQ finish and would eventually lead to one of the worst pay-per-view concepts: World War 3, but also because of the Monster Truck Sumo Match that took place before the match that should’ve resulted in The Giant’s death. You figured monster trucks and pro wrestling would make perfect bedfellows, but even WCW managed to screw that up. There was no monster trucking over a heap of junkyard cars, or even a demolition derby style event. Instead, the fans were treated to an actual sumo type match in which the object was to push the other truck out of the circle. So, yeah, WCW even made monster trucks seem uncool. But back to The Giant’s death defying fall. If one of your top heels has the ability to come away unscathed, after falling from the roof of an arena, wouldn’t you want to inform your fans of how he did it? Or, I don’t know, include that as part of his gimmick? Or, did I mention, explain how the hell he did it? Valid reasonable plot points be damned. Pro wrestling didn’t get to be as big as it is (was) because of careful plotting and on this particular Halloween Havoc WCW did its part by reinforcing that notion.

BONUS!

Halloween Havoc ’97: The Be All End All of Run-In Interferences

This WCW fan beat down was somehow overlooked and not included in the 10 Count: Fan Altercations list. So, seeing as it took place at Halloween Havoc here it is.